Does anyone know why we allow fresh water from our rivers and streams to flow into the ocean as opposed to diverting for agricultural purposes?

Good point. However, I would point out that a lot of the lower Mississippi River valley gets enough rain that irrigation is not necessary for farming, as it is out here in the West. The system you propose is already in use along the Colorado, which is dammed in at least four places, and has two major aqueduct systems feeding off of it (just on the California portion), one of which is used for agricultural uses in Imperial County.

ANSWER:   Well one reason is because that particular part of Louisiana if anything needs less and not more water. Have you ever traveled that area?

A better question is why was not the Spill way opened for Hurricain Katrina?

It sure seems as much money and effort are wasted in other places in the country, The Mississippi and Missouri rivers could be diverted in Missouri and channeled to western Okla and Texas, not to mention the eastern rivers to lakes near Atlanta.

Too bad it's not a hydro power plant. It's hard to divert the water - as the areas that need it are too far away or too high in elevation

It has been proven time and time again, the more we alter natures flow the more problems we create.  There is already a large dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico, which is primarly caused by the run off from agriculture along the Mississippi River.  If we were to divert all fresh water run off, the salinity of the ocean would increase, more species of fish would die off and the oceans would become another scar upon mother earth.  

How deep would you like to flood south central United States to hold all this water while you try to divert some of it to your agricultural purposes?  I suppose you are aware that the Colorado River does not flow to the sea because it is all used for human purposes before it ever gets to Mexico.  Some fish of the sea must have access to fresh water streams to spawn, as well.  There are many reasons why what you would like doesn't happen, but more and more runoff is being used all the time for human purposes as the need increases.

In an answer to Mr. McKenzie's query, the junction of our freshwater rivers and the oceans bordering our country are the "nursuries" of most bird and fish species that occupy the coastal areas. These estuaries are tidal driven ecosystems where the breeding and rearing of the young take place. While many delta areas are of major importance, the delta of the Mississippi and other great rivers the empty inot the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico are extremely important to hundreds of species. With out the inflow of salt water and the return out flow of of spring run off, most of the coastal fisheries would collapse. Some of the species include red drum, spotted seatrout, shrimp, crabs, flounder etc. On the west coast, all of the anadromous fishes would collapse with out the rivers for the spawning fish to move up, and for a place for the young to mature until they can go back to the ocean to reach sexual maturity. It's simply a matter of total collapse if the rivers were mined for their water before reaching the oceans.  

Sure do, Jim.  The people who should pay for it, don't want to and the people who aren't in the path of potential flooding don't care.

I'm not sure about the gulf area, but the Pacific Salmon requires saltwater breeding grounds and a transition from salt to fresh water as they mature.  I'm sure there are other biological factors which rely on fresh water flowing into the ocean.

I'm not a scientist, but it seems clear that it would be foolish for us to simply divert all of the fresh water from entering the ocean.  If we could divert all of the water from the Mississippi, sediment would not continue down stream and into the ocean, causing the river bed to eventually become filled with silt and dirt and the water would become more of a flood hazard.

In answer to Mr. Synder's question as to why they didn't open the Bonne Carre Spillway during Katrina. The answer is that our levees in New Orleans were overwhelmed by the tidal surge from the Gulf of Mexico and Lake Pontchartrain. In fact, the only areas in New Orleans that didn't flood were along the levees of the Mississippi River. If they had opened the spillway the salt water would have infiltrated the marsh area and some of it did because of the level of the lake. The one thing we did not want at that time was more water in the lake.

It is the fact that the levees were built that is causing costal erosion, given that most of south Louisiana was formed from river sediment deposited by the river's anual flooding. Now that we have these levees the river doesn't overflow, sediment is not deposited and the coastal wetlands are eroding.

If you divert all the fresh water you will alter the ocean currents. if currents are altered you will change gobal weather patterns much more than warming has even though to do .

Louis,


Actually it is not a better question.  The flooding was from Lake Ponchetrain, not the Mississippi River.  Opening Bonne Carrie would have done nothing to alleviate the situation.

To Louis Synder -- the reason the spillway wasn't opened for Katrina is that the spillway diverts  river water into Lake Ponchatrain, and since it was breaches of the levees on Lake Ponchatrain and the canals that flooded NOLA, more water in the lake would have contributed to an even bigger disaster.  The flood waters were high enough without the addition of river water.

The question about the spillway not being open during Katrina, has an easy answer. The water did not come from the Mississippi; it was pushed in from the Gulf of Mexico in front of the storm. I am from the Lousiana /Texas area, they don't need more irrigation and the rivers and bayous need to make it to the oceans for a multitude of wildlife.

not all of the water from the colorado is taken before it reaches mexico, mexico owns part of the river and we have to let some of it run into mexico so they can have the water, but it does get used up before it hits the sea of cortez.

The effect of Katrina was horrible but it shouldn’t have been a surprise. This article is right, the Mississippi River is not the cause. Humans trying to control the Mississippi River are at fault. Delta basins naturally migrate similar to the way barrier islands do. The current path of the Mississippi should have been abandoned 300 years ago once the sediment built up and a more efficient path to the ocean was created. Instead New Orleans spends copious amounts of money building levees and other structures to keep it in place so they can keep their port.

To H.L Bangs. How would you propose to divert
a river to Texas? Can we do a bridge to England
while we are at it?

Several Points:
1)To the idea that the Bonnet Carre' Spillway should have been opened opened during Hurricane Katrina to prevent flooding in New Orleans, that would have made matters worse as most of the flooding was from Lake Pontchartrain, and the Spillway opens up to the Lake. None of the flooding came from the Miss. River.
2) Coastal erosion in Louisiana is in large part due to the Miss. River basin not being allowed to rejuvenate itself through seasonal flooding. Practically all of the River's water along with the sediment it carries ends up flowing beyond the contitnental shelf of the Gulf of Mexico. Pre-levees, the River would flood the marshes near its mouth, deposit the sediment, and then the marshes would rebuild. Without the sediment being deposited by the River, the marshes both subside and erode due to saltwater intrusion from the Gulf of Mexico. Man made canals, non-native species such as nutria, and losses due to storms have only made matters worse. The marshlands play an important role in protecting South Louisiana (and New Orleans) by acting as a natural barrier which dampens the energy of the hurricanes themselves as well as that of the accompanying storm surge. As bad as Hurricane Betsy was for New Orleans in 1965, it could have been much worse if the wetlands that were in existence at that time had not sapped it of some its strength. On the other hand, the damages we suffered from Hurricne Katrina would have been far less if not for the tremendous loss of marshlands over the past several decades and the loss of protection they afforded us.
3) Miss. River diversion projects can replicate some of the natural processes that replenish marshlands by allowing River water to flow into marsh areas in a controlled manner. These projects need major funding, and Congress needs to get on board.
4) The marshes in this area are the spawning grounds for more seafood than any other area in the country, and they are in extreme risk due to coastal erosion. What's more, more than 20% of our nation's energy passes through this region via pipelines, ships, etc. The collapse of the remaining marshlands would destroy the fishery and seriously impact the availability of those energy resources.
 

the reason why it wasnt opened for Katrina is it empties into lake ponchartrain and would have caused ewven more flooding

in reference to spacegold's comment:
The Colorado does in fact flow to the sea, and in fact by treaty the US guarantees a certain amount of flow at the border (the mouth of the river being in Mexico). Several times in recent years, spillways at some of the dams on the lower part of the river have been opened in order to provide that flow. It only appears otherwise, because the mouth of the river is unusually shallow. This is however a natural and permanent condition, predating all the dams.

To Lewis;

The Bonnet Carrie only drains the Mississippi River and not the levee system around New Orleans or Lake Ponchatrain.  The hurricane came up from the south east of the city and the rain and storm surge in that area produced the high water.  It was actually the day AFTER the hurricane passed that the city flooded.  Blame that on the Orleans Parish Levee Board and the US Army Corps of Engineers.  It about a 70/30 blame split on that.

It would be nice to have a hydro plant there but spring is the only time the water is that high.  Such a plant could be placed at Simmsport where the river is trying to change course and flow down the Atchafaylia River.

The levees are causing the silt to channelize and deposit in the river bottm or off shore.  As a result, all of the land the annual flooding created over thousands of years is disappearing.

West coast has extracted so much water and grown way too big, now they want to grab more water to sustain themselves. I suggest you start thinking about nuclear powered desalination plants or start moving back east.

Some of your comments are right on the money, you know who you are. Some of you apparently never attended grade school based on the questions that were asked. If you don't understand it, please don't vote, you're not qualified to elect the next leader of the country.

Wow! Some of you are real Rocket Scientists. How could you live in this country with all the Katrina coverage and blame the Mississippi for the flooding?? It was storm surge, comming from the opposite direction!! and Ponchartrain was already over full......

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